A Greener Shade of Blue? Reflections on New Conservative Approaches to the Environment S3518
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S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 1 a greener shade of blue? reflections on new Conservative approaches to the environment S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 2 a greener shade of blue? reflections on new Conservative approaches to the environment edited by Tracy Carty Green Alliance is an independent charity. For 28 years we have worked with businesses and other environmental charities to make environmental solutions a priority in British politics. We work with representatives of all three a greener shade of blue? a greener of the main political parties to encourage new ideas, facilitate dialogue and secure new commitments to action and progress on the environment. Designed and printed by Seacourt www.seacourt.net on paper with at least 75% recycled content. © Green Alliance 2007 £5 ISBN 978-1-905869-02-2 All rights reserved. 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Company Limited by guarantee, registered number 3037633 S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 3 1 contents easier said than done: the ecological challenge for Conservatism _02 Stephen Hale improving our environment: a social responsibility _09 a greener shade of blue? a greener Rt Hon David Cameron MP paying the price _16 Rt Hon John Gummer MP the role of the state _19 Nick Hurd MP looking after the environment, looking after the economy _24 George Osborne MP the greening of the Tory party: rhetoric or reality? _30 Charles Secrett accidents and achievements: the Conservative environmental record _38 Tom Burke why beauty matters _44 Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 4 2 easier said than done: the ecological challenge for Conservatism Stephen Hale Conservatism has been a distinct ideological strand the Conservative’s emerging approach to the in British political life for over two hundred years. environmental agenda, as well as the lessons of The environment was a significant element of recent history.We are grateful to all of them: David Conservative thought at the outset, as David Cameron himself, George Osborne, Oliver Letwin, a greener shade of blue? a greener Cameron notes in his contribution to this collection. John Gummer and Nick Hurd from the Conservative Party, and two eminent independent But the nature of the environmental challenge has environmentalists,Tom Burke and Charles Secrett. changed profoundly over that time.The astonishing Together they provide important insights and lessons speed of globalisation and economic development for those concerned with the Conservative’s future has brought a catalogue of environmental impacts approach. that threaten the foundations of our current and future prosperity, and pose a new and urgent This essay explores three issues: challenge for the philosophy and political parties of • the ideological challenge that the environment left and right. poses to modern Conservative thinking; • the approach proposed to that challenge by Even two years has proved to be a long time in contributors to this collection; and environmental politics. In that time, environmental • the lessons for the Conservatives of Labour’s issues have moved from the margins to the centre of experience in government. British politics and public debate.That process began with Tony Blair’s decision to make climate change a focus of the G8 Summit in 2005. But David Why are we doing this? Cameron has dramatically accelerated the pace of Green Alliance was established in 1979 with a change. He is the first leader of a major British mission to green British politics. Government policy political party to make the environment a central is naturally our primary pre-occupation. But we also theme of his leadership from the outset. Green focus on the environmental policies of both Alliance welcomes that. opposition parties, and have hosted speeches in recent times by Charles Kennedy, David Cameron and This pamphlet brings together an impressive set of his predecessor, Michael Howard. contributors to look much further ahead and explore S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 5 We have chosen to publish this collection on new A profound challenge for the right (and left) 3 Conservative approaches to the environment because The most urgent issue facing all parties is of course the discussion within the party is now entering a climate change, on which we must take decisive crucial phase, and David Cameron’s focus on the action globally within the next ten years. If we fail to environment has dramatically raised the stakes. After do so, Nicholas Stern’s report on the economics of ten years of a Labour government, it is clearer than climate change1 found that it could have a greater ever that speeches and exhortation alone do not economic impact than the last two world wars and deliver. A strong philosophical foundation and the great depression of the 1930s. It could reduce resolute political leadership are critical to driving global gross domestic product by as much as 20 per change across Whitehall and in society. cent, leaving aside the ecological and humanitarian impacts. It is a challenge that defies categorisation, All roads lead to the shadow cabinet with immense economic, social, shade of blue? a greener The policy commissions appointed by David security and development Cameron report in the summer of 2007.The implications. “ David Cameron’s appointment of Zac Goldsmith and John Gummer as focus on the co-chairs of the Quality of Life Commission has Above all, it is already an impending environment has raised hopes and expectations of this process in the human tragedy.To take just one dramatically environmental community. example, a two degree rise in global raised the stakes” temperatures would increase the area But there are of course six policy commissions.Their of Bangladesh annually affected by make-up is a reminder that David Cameron’s flooding by at least 25 per cent. Globally, the Conservative Party (like Tony Blair’s New Labour) is Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a very broad church. Despite efforts to build links estimates that it could create 200 million refugees by between them, their reports seem likely to provide a 2050. Climate change is not simply an full and often contradictory menu of approaches and environmental problem. specific proposals. But it is also not the only environmental problem. So all roads lead to the shadow cabinet, and the The urgent need for action on climate change is now small group of politicians and advisers who are the acknowledged across the British political spectrum, driving force behind Cameron’s Conservatives.They at least in principle. But the need for action on many will pull together a substantive response to the other issues is much less well understood. Current policy commissions for approval by the shadow patterns of economic life in the UK bring with them cabinet and publication in early 2008. It will be the a variety of other profound effects, from the first real opportunity to assess the prospects for destruction of the rainforests internationally to the environmental policy under a future Conservative loss of countryside to development in Britain and government. the public health effects of our addiction to the car. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 6 4 The underlying issue in all of these cases is the Conservative philosophy and the imperative to respect ecological limits. It has been environment the recurring theme of contemporary green David Cameron’s contribution to this collection thinking, though interpreted in many different ways. opens by arguing that “it is precisely because my It challenges the economic growth paradigm that political outlook is rooted in Conservatism that I am dominates mainstream thinking on both left and so passionate about the environment”. He is right to right.Their responses will vary. argue that there are synergies between the But both must find new ways Conservative and environmental agendas. Some “ the environmental case to meet our needs that respect should not be seen as forms of Conservatism have placed a strong global, national and local emphasis on preserving the commons and the a preserve of the environmental limits. common good, and taken a multi-generational a greener shade of blue? a greener left-liberal parties” perspective that accords a real weight to the legacy The modern environmental that we leave to future generations.The contribution agenda is associated more by Oliver Letwin to this collection, on the need to frequently with the left than the right. But the accord beauty a prominence in our political environmental case should not be seen as a preserve decision-making, draws on that heritage. of the left-liberal parties, for several reasons: • the global scale and complexity of the challenges But Conservatism is a broad intellectual philosophy.